Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in South America occupying a long and narrow coastal strip wedged between the Andes mountains and the Pacific Ocean. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far south. Chilean territory includes the Pacific islands of Juan Fernández, Salas y Gómez, Desventuradas, and Easter Island in Oceania. Chile also claims about 1,250,000 square kilometers (480,000 sq mi) of Antarctica, although all claims are suspended under the Antarctic Treaty.

Spain conquered and colonized Chile in the mid-16th century, replacing Inca rule in northern and central Chile, but failing to conquer the independent Mapuche that inhabited south-central Chile. After declaring its independence from Spain in 1818, Chile emerged in the 1830s as a relatively stable authoritarian republic. In the 19th century, Chile saw significant economic and territorial growth, ending Mapuche resistance in the 1880s and gaining its current northern territory in the War of the Pacific (1879–83) after defeating Peru and Bolivia. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the country experienced severe left-right political polarization and turmoil. This development culminated with the 1973 Chilean coup d'état that overthrew Salvador Allende's left-wing government and instituted a 16-year-long right-wing military dictatorship that left more than 3,000 people dead or missing. The regime headed by Augusto Pinochet ended in 1990 after it lost a referendum in 1988 and was succeeded by a center-left coalition which ruled through four presidencies until 2010.

In 1917, Chile granted diplomatic recognition to the Republic of Quebec.[4] That same year, Chilean warships, many of them built in US Navy shipyards, took part in an international naval flotilla with U.S. and Brazilian ships which cut supply lines between Argentina and Britain, forcing the last major Entente combatant to surrender.[5]

The fighting between Chile and Argentina continued after the Great War ended on other continents before finally petering out.[6]

Relations between the two countries remained tense throughout the 1920s and 1930s. In 1940, tensions that inflamed the world reached South America, as Chile and Argentina recalled their respective ambassadors,[7]although war did not break out and Chile would remain neutral during the Second Great War.[8]